{"id":5141,"date":"2010-08-06T18:33:21","date_gmt":"2010-08-07T01:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=5141"},"modified":"2013-02-07T20:28:06","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T04:28:06","slug":"for-a-good-time-call-brahms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/08\/06\/for-a-good-time-call-brahms\/","title":{"rendered":"for a good time, call brahms"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had the best time this morning.\u00a0 By this time of the summer, I’ve usually frittered away a large portion of my free time on the bike or in front of the tv watching the pros ride their bikes.\u00a0 The viola gets put away in the studio and gets to think about all that it has done during the previous season, until I finally get my desire to play it back in my heart, brain, and fingers.\u00a0 Suffice it to say, I’ve been inspired by a few things that I’ve seen and heard lately.<\/p>\n

First of all, my wife Heather, who has been out of commission for over a year due to a playing injury, has been seriously on the mend, and is now back up to full speed.\u00a0 Listening to her practice Bach, Popper etudes, and other repertoire that has been missing around the house for over a year has been seriously inspiring to me!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another factor is that I recently purchased an amazing CD by one of the great violists of our time, a German woman by the name of Tabea Zimmermann.\u00a0 She recently release a recording of the three solo sonatas by the German composer Max Reger, alongside two of Bach’s great solo suites originally written for the cello.\u00a0 Her artistry in these recordings is nothing short of revelatory.\u00a0 We all know that Bach’s compositions for solo cello\/viola are great masterpieces, but Reger?\u00a0 Reger was always that poor, idiot great nephew of Bach whose unfortunate compositions we were forced to play by teachers who were forced to play them by their teachers.\u00a0 This amazing recording really has opened my eyes to what wonderful, characteristic pieces these are for the viola.\u00a0 Each sonata is dedicated to a different violist with whom Reger was acquainted, and in a way, the whole set of three sonatas is a whole, meta-composition, where each succeeding work is a prismatic variation of that which precedes it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This morning, however, I had the great privilege to go over the pianist Cary Lewis’ home to read through some pieces both new and familiar for viola and piano.\u00a0 We started with the piece Morpheus<\/em>, by Rebecca Clarke, a wonderfully atmospheric work that shows both her wonderful imagination and ability to write for her own instrument.\u00a0 We then read an Elegy<\/em> by Clarke’s husband, James Friskin, who was a great teacher of piano at the Juilliard School for many years.\u00a0 We then went on to another British female composer, Pamela Harrison, reading a few movements of her Sonata.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To wind up the morning, we then turned to the two sonatas by Johannes Brahms.\u00a0 Originally written for the clarinet (for the great muse<\/a> of Brahms at the end of his composition career, Richard M\u00fchlfeld, for whom Brahms also wrote the Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Trio), Brahms also made transcriptions for viola (an instrument which he loved, but these transcriptions apparently did not sit well with him) and violists have eagerly taken on their challenges almost from the beginning.\u00a0 If you cannot enjoy playing Brahms, then you really have lost all of your former joy in music.\u00a0 Brahms’ writing, especially in his late, autumnal period, is so rich, so fluid and facile and dense, that it thoroughly rewards return visits again and again to find new turns of phrase, a new piquancy of harmonic change, or just to enjoy the journey again.\u00a0 So it was a joy to return to these works after a long absence (I haven’t played the E-flat sonata since grad school, and have never publicly performed the F minor) with a pianist of such depth and experience as Cary.\u00a0 My batteries are officially recharged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the best time this morning.\u00a0 By this time of the summer, I’ve usually frittered away a large portion of my free time on the bike or in front of the tv watching the pros ride their bikes.\u00a0 The viola gets put away in the studio and gets to think about all that it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[2362,2364,2365,2363,2366],"class_list":["post-5141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-brahms-viola-sonatas","tag-morpheus","tag-pamela-harrison","tag-rebecca-clarke","tag-sonata"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1kV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13149,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/13\/a-tale-of-two-brahms\/","url_meta":{"origin":5141,"position":0},"title":"a tale of two brahms","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Another musician who blogs quite frequently is the pianist Stephen Hough (a favorite soloist here in Portland, with frequent appearances with the Oregon Symphony), and he recently wrote a blog post for the Guardian newspaper (he also has a regular blog at the Telegraph) describing his process of revising his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/WxH50l50dvs\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4274,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/28\/diaz-denk-play-brahms\/","url_meta":{"origin":5141,"position":1},"title":"diaz & denk play brahms","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is one of those recordings that I'm very excited about getting my hands on.\u00a0 Roberto D\u00ecaz, currently the president of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and a former principal violist of both the National Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra, along with Jeremy Denk, one of the more exciting,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "piano"","block_context":{"text":"piano","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/piano-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/546.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":181,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/01\/26\/programming-games\/","url_meta":{"origin":5141,"position":2},"title":"programming games","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm in the process of figuring out what to play on a planned spring recital, and it's made me think a lot about the largely forgotten art of programming - the act of picking what pieces will be on a concert.I was poking through some of my music that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":737,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/06\/chamber-concert-noon-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":5141,"position":3},"title":"chamber concert noon today","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've got time in your lunch hour for a quick concert of chamber music masterpieces, come on over to the Old Church (1422 SW 11th Ave) at Noon today to hear (mostly) members of the Oregon Symphony play music by Beethoven and Brahms.\u00c2\u00a0 Here's the line-up: Beethoven - Quartet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"mol_brownbaglunch_big.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/mol_brownbaglunch_big.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2133,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/14\/brahms-sweet-brahms\/","url_meta":{"origin":5141,"position":4},"title":"brahms sweet brahms","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Johannes Brahms Ever fallen in love with a familiar piece all over again?\u00c2\u00a0 That's what happened to me this week with the Brahms 3rd Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the first Brahms symphony that I played, back in the Tacoma Youth Symphony under our wonderful conductor Harry Davidson (now at Duke University).\u00c2\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Johannes Brahms","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/brahms5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2781,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/28\/mavi-magic\/","url_meta":{"origin":5141,"position":5},"title":"mavi magic","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight was one of those nights where I was intimately reconnected with why I became a performer in the first place.\u00c2\u00a0 It's about people.\u00c2\u00a0 The person the composer, who in their genius rendered their innermost thoughts into sublime music.\u00c2\u00a0 The person the performer, who studied for years to be able\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}